Antifungal activities of vineyard-habitat wild yeast for grape gray-mold disease and its effects on spontaneous winemaking.

Microorganisms, including native yeasts, are abundant in vineyard fields. Herein, we studied the possibility of using vineyard-derived wild yeast as a microbial pesticide against Botrytis cinerea, a pathogen that causes grape gray mold disease, to boost the initial alcohol production of spontaneously fermented wine. We identified the Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain KONDO170908, which showed the most effective antifungal activity in an ex vivo yeast dripping experiment on grape berries.

A Comparative Study on Fungal Diversity in Organic and Conventionally Cultivated Lemons During Accelerated Storage.

There has been a growing interest in organic farming as a countermeasure to the environmental burden caused by chemical pesticides. We analyzed and compared the fungal diversity of lemon fruits from organic and conventional cultivation by automated rRNA intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA), accompanied by isolation of cultured colonies and metagenomic analysis. Lemon peels were cut out and subjected to the analyses at purchase and after accelerated storage at 28 °C.

Microbial Diversity in the Edible Gall on White Bamboo Formed by the Interaction between Ustilago esculenta and Zizania latifolia.

An edible gall is formed between the third and fourth nodes beneath the apical meristem near the base of Zizania latifolia shoots. This gall is harbored by and interacts with the smut fungus Ustilago esculenta. The gall is also a valuable vegetable called "white bamboo," jiaobai or gausun in China and makomotake in Japan.